I stared at the desk.
“No one does that, Geneviève. No one but a vampire,” he finished more gently.
But I didn’t wantgentle, dammit. I was an intelligent adult, not a child.
“When?” I demanded.
He frowned. “What?”
“What time did it happen? Do you have an estimate?”
He smirked. “How about you tell me when you claim to have seen him.”
“I’m notclaiminganything. I saw Henrik. Are you saying you don’t believe me?”
He let a few seconds tick by, probably to let me cool off.
Well, he’d be waiting a long time, dammit.
Finally, he replied. “I’m saying I have a chance to put away a vampire with a criminal record longer than the Loire. One who could turn on you or your sister at any time,” he added.
I sucked in a sharp breath. Maybe Clem was right. Maybe I should use my chance to rid us all of Henrik. No more serving huge amounts of red meat at every meal. No more snide remarks. More importantly, no fear for our lives.
Then I caught myself. That was so, so wrong. Henrik should be accused of any crimes he’d committed if evidence sufficed. But bending the law was a dangerous game.
“He was in the drawing room at two a.m. When was Claudette killed?” I barked.
Clement glanced down at what I assumed was the coroner’s preliminary report.
I watched his eyes move over the text, then snag. The storm in his eyes raged, and I could practically hear thunder clap.
Estimated time of death, two a.m.I would bet good money those words appeared in the report.
He stared at the report for a long time, then leveled a hard gaze at me. “Why are you so eager to protect him?”
I thumped both my hands on the desk and raised my voice — enough that even Officer Dulaire couldn’t forget I existed.
“Because he’s innocent!” I gestured angrily at the door. “Because another vampire is roaming free right now. The one who killed Claudette.”
I’d grown loud enough to make the ensuing silence deafening, but I refused to release Clement’s hard stare.
Let him look at me. Let him take notice. Just this one time, if nothing else.
A muscle in his cheek twitched. A moment later, his eyes dropped back to the report.
“Thank you for the information, Mademoiselle Durand. That will be all.” He motioned to the door.
I glared for another ten seconds — the slowest of my life — then stomped out.
Bang!I slammed the door, making Agent Bear jump.
I stalked over to Roux and Bene and sat with my arms crossed. Neither said a word, nor did I — until an hour later, when my sister and Marius charged through the door. Then there werelotsof words, not all of them polite.
“Fucking Clement,” Marius muttered exactly as Clement opened the office door.
Their eyes locked, and the tension in the room skyrocketed.
Handy rule of thumb: never put a dragon and a wolf shifter in a small space with the woman one had stolen from the other.
